The Top 5 Best Ferrari Liveries Ever, Ranked

Ferrari has long been a primary force in the world of racing. "Since 1947, we have been building cars destined to win on the track and on the road," Ferrari's site boasts. The prancing horse has maintained a tight grip on podiums everywhere for as long as Ferraris have been entered into racing events. While the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team may utilize a blanketed red shade for its livery, the truth is that Ferraris have surfaced on tracks worldwide with a wide range of color schemes and individualized skins.

The Italian racing red is, of course, a staple in any discussion of iconic Ferrari liveries. Still, some other classic examples can be found in other national racing color layouts and a few even more personalized livery designs. From the British Racing Green of the "Thin Wall Special" to the rainbow-splashed chassis of the Ferrari 458 that roared to a second-place finish in the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, these are the most eye-catching Ferrari liveries of all time.

This Ferrari sports a unique livery and achieved a second-place finish at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, with James Calado, Olivier Beretta, and Davide Rigon sharing driving duties. This Ferrari is wonderfully different from the standard liveries found on racing vehicles because it incorporates an array of colors splashed across the face and sides of the car. The 458 GT2 Italia is, all on its own, a beautiful car. The hood includes a wavy, aggressive scoop along with ported slits that run up from the nose of the vehicle toward the windshield.

Combine the style of this Ferrari, powered by a 4.5L V8 engine that produces 464 horsepower, with the color gradient, and you're left with something immensely eye-catching. The vehicle's centerline is painted with a white stripe interlinked with thinner, red and green flourishes (perhaps in a nod to the Italian flag). 

The car is then draped in blue accents that make up what might be considered the other primary color of the racer (in coordination with the white segments). Additionally, there are giant red lines across the chassis (as well as a red roof piece), and yellow and green finishing touches to round out the style.

[Featured image by Kevin Decherf via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 2.0]

While Ferraris on the Formula 1 circuit showcase a consistent red, French racers are often draped in blue, the national racing hue of the country. This particular F40 LM (no. 74045) was sold to Rene Herzog, a former Le Mans racer, in 1992. It bounced around the garages of various racers until settling as a member of the French Pilot-Aldix team in the middle of the 1995 season. 

This car was a privateer build, like some others on this list. As a result, it was constantly being tweaked and tuned by its engineering team to get the best performance out of the vehicle that hadn't begun life on the track from within the halls of Ferrari itself.

The car was repainted in French racing blue before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car that had been retired four times earlier that season finished the pre-qualifying round as fifth fastest overall and fastest in the GT1 classification. The car is bathed in '90s angular lines, and the squared back makes the vehicle look aggressive yet still refined. The blue livery combined with the Pilot logos and pen imagery (all in a standout white tone against the blue backdrop) makes this a head-turner on the racing circuit.

The "Thin Wall Special" was a racer built on the guts of a Ferrari but assembled by the Vandervell racing team. This Ferrari-based race car was completed in England and driven by Mike Hawthorn (an English racer) at the Goodwood event in 1953. Its first action was pursuing the Ulster Trophy a year earlier at Dundrod in Northern Ireland. It was driven to a victory there by Piero Taruffi and then was again the winning vehicle at Silverstone. At Goodwood in 1952, the Thin Wall Special's rear axle broke, and the resulting rebuild made the car even more English by nature.

It's no wonder this car with the DNA of a Ferrari was painted in British racing green from front to back. The vehicle is an open-top racing roadster, and its livery is an homage, not to the Italian origins of the vessel, but to its reinventors in Britain. The car is a work of art, and its engineering and rebuilding efforts underpin the decision to douse the vehicle in classic British racing garb.

[Featured image by John Chapman via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0]

The yellow 250 LM entered into the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1965 was another spectacular Ferrari vehicle that stands out among the wildly excellent Ferrari liveries. The Ecurie Francorchamps team entered the car, hailing from Belgium, and Pierre Dumay and Gustave Gosselin drove the vehicle to a second-place finish in the race. Like the "Thin Wall Special," the 250 LM entered by the Belgian team is a privateer variety of Ferrari builds. It's based on the Ferrari design but was finished by Maranello.

The yellow livery was typical of the Belgian racing team, and this vehicle would have nearly won the 1965 24 Hours of Le Mans if not for a tire blowout on the Mulsanne Straight. This forced the team to pit the vehicle to apply repairs to the rear wing and ultimately limp along for several subsequent laps. 

The team lost the lead to a NART-entered 250 LM and ended the campaign just behind their competitors racing the same base Ferrari vehicle. Win or lose, however, the brilliant and bright yellow body styling is a sight to behold and can't be overlooked when thinking back on fantastic Ferrari racing colors.

There's no denying that the red blaze of Team Ferrari on the Formula 1 track is the brand's best livery. While many other color patterns and build designs are memorable and dazzle viewers, there's no topping Ferrari's traditional red outfit. The team has recently paired a red chassis with black and white Mission Winnow logos and prominent yellow Shell icons. The Shell (and Pirelli logos) match almost perfectly with the yellow Ferrari badge, completing the team's modern, classic livery layout.

Ferrari's history with the color red dates back to the very inception of organized motorsports. At its start, national teams entered vehicles with specific color patterns to denote their origin. For German and France, for instance, the cars were splashed in white and blue, respectively. 

Italian vehicles took on "Rosso Corsa" or Racing Red as their livery. Enzo Ferrari is said to have uttered: "Ask a child to draw a car, and certainly he will draw it red." With Ferrari hailing from Italy, the team has retained its heritage shade, and this choice has served the organization admirably. Ferrari's F1 squad began racing in 1950, and it has won 243 Grand Prix races and 16 total world championships.